When Coming Home Means Meeting Your Daughter

National Guard Returns After Year In Afghanistan

EAST GRANBY— Emotions ran high as dozens of Connecticut National Guard troops streamed out of a jet and into the arms of their families Thursday, but away from the waving signs, patriot music and cheering crowds was another special moment.

In the quiet shade under an airplane hangar at Connecticut's Air National Guard Base, Army Spc. Matthew Crudo held his 5-month-old daughter, Nora, in his arms for the first time.

Nora was born while Matthew was deployed with the 1048th Transportation Co., which returned Thursday from Afghanistan. When his wife, Sarah, gave birth, he watched over the Internet video chatting program Skype.

Crudo was a driver and a gunner during his 10 months in Afghanistan. The jobs were dangerous and he was sometime afraid, he said. But he was happy to home with his family on Thursday.

"It feels great," he said. "It was a long journey to get back here."

About 160 troops from the Stratford-based 1048th were reunited with their families on Thursday. As the jet carrying them home rumbled across the tarmac, cheers went up from hundreds of parents, husbands, wives, children, aunts, uncles and friends who waved giant signs and American flags.

After getting off the plane and shaking hands with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy — who saw the company off last September — the soldiers reunited with their families and friends, many in tearful embraces.

Crudo wasn't alone in seeing his child for the first time: six other families at Thursday's welcoming had a child born while one parent was deployed.

The Crudos, who live in Strafford, have been married for two years, about as long as Matthew has been serving in the Guard. Sarah Crudo said it was been challenging to have her husband deployed for most of the time that they've been married. But she said she's looking forward to spending more time with him now that he's home.

"It's going to be like dating all over again, starting from the beginning," she said with a smile. "It's exciting."

One thing that made it easier for Sarah to raise Nora while Matthew was away was her friendship with Tessa Burke, whose husband Sgt. Forrest Burke, also returned Thursday with the 1048th.

The two met on a flight to Texas in October to see their husbands once more before they left for Afghanistan. Tessa Burke was pregnant with her son, Tucker, who is now 81/2 months old.

The two mothers visited each other throughout their husband's deployment, with Sarah Crudo going up to Vienna, Maine, to see Burke.

"She knows exactly what I'm going through," said Sarah Crudo.

Several members of the Crudo family were in East Granby to greet Matthew when he came off the plane. Matthew's father, Rocco Crudo, said he was happy to see his oldest son come home from the battlefield safely.

"I prayed every day for him and the guys in his unit," said Rocco Crudo, who lives in Bridgeport. "He likes it. He likes being in the service and the camaraderie."

Col. John Whitford said this deployment to Afghanistan was the second for the 1048th since it became part of the National Guard 10 years ago. He said the unit is not likely to deploy again soon as U.S. forces are drawing down operations in Afghanistan.